Rams’ Rookie Tavon Austin Dealing with New-Found Wealth

Updated at 7:45 am, May 13th, 2013

Justin K. Aller/Getty Images(NEW YORK) — Former West Virginia wide receiver Tavon Austin became a wealthy man when the St. Louis Rams selected him with the eighth overall selection in the 2013 NFL Draft. Austin says people are already coming out of nowhere looking for some of that money.

“Everybody expects a lot of things from you as far as money,” Austin told the Rams website. “Everybody wants to be around you. My phone doesn’t stop ringing now. I feels like they’re counting my bank account now. So that’s probably the hardest thing for me right now, just people.”

“I’ve got a lot of cousins now,” he added. “The whole [city of] Baltimore is my cousin now. We’re going to just try to keep focused and let my mother and all of them handle it.”

In his senior season at West Virginia, Austin was a dynamic player. He caught 114 passes for 1,289 yards with 12 touchdowns.